1.
Voiles
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Voiles is a composition by Claude Debussy for solo piano from 1909. It is the piece in a set of twelve préludes published in 1910. The title of the piece may be translated to English as either veils or sails, except for some mild, localized chromaticism and a short pentatonic passage, the entire piece uses the whole tone scale. In their published form, the Préludes have their individual titles printed not at the start, the composition studies the whole tone scale intensively, with the exception of a brief six-measure section in the pentatonic scale. The structure of the piece follows a ternary form,42, and A begins in m.48. This three-part form is articulated by the structure, A and A have only soft dynamics. The B section is set apart by a faster tempo. Finally, the A and A sections are characterized by a scale, while the B section is characterized by an E-flat minor pentatonic scale. The whole-tone scale and the soft dynamics give the A and A sections a mysterious and eerie mood. In the B section, the dynamics, the faster passage. If interpreting the movement in light of veils, the eerie, the clearer, more open sound of the B section generates an impression that the veil is removed, but returns for the A section. Generally however, there is no clear structure that the piece fits easily into, some say that the pentatonic section forms the B part but, in truth, it is not clear enough to state it is definitely ABA. Others argue that it follows a Rounded Binary form more than Ternary form due to the fact there is an A part, B part and then another bit at the end. List of compositions by Claude Debussy by genre Attribution This article contains information translated from the article of the German Wikipedia. A list of contributors can be there at the History section. Voiles music score from Préludes at IMSLP Notes on Voiles on Klavier-noten. de Preludes, Book 1 No.2 Voiles by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli on YouTube

2.
Whole tone scale
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In music, a whole tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbours by the interval of a whole tone. This effect is especially emphasised by the fact that triads built on such scale tones are augmented, indeed, one can play all six tones of a whole tone scale simply with two augmented triads whose roots are a major second apart. Since they are symmetrical, whole tone scales do not give an impression of the tonic or tonality. The composer Olivier Messiaen called the tone scale his first mode of limited transposition. The composer and music theorist George Perle calls the whole tone scale interval cycle 2, since there are only two possible whole tone scale positions, it is either C20 or C21. For this reason, the tone scale is also maximally even. Due to this symmetry, the hexachord consisting of the scale is not distinct under inversion or more than one transposition. Use of the whole tone scale can be traced at least as far back as Johann Sebastian Bach. The concluding chorale movement of his cantata O Ewigkeit du Donnerwort BWV60, opens with four notes from the tone scale, Mozart also used the scale in his Musical Joke, for strings. Further examples can be found in the works of Rimsky-Korsakov, the sea kings music in Sadko and also in Scheherezade, colles names as the childhood of the whole-tone scale the music of Berlioz and Schubert in France and then Russians Glinka and Dargomyzhsky. The sense of mystery and ambiguity here even extends to the title of the piece, though the whole-tone scale is prominent in much of his music after 1905 when he encountered Debussy, it serves simply to fit the motifs over augmented chords. The same motifs return from the whole-tone to the scale without emphasizing the contrast. The first of Alban Bergs Seven Early Songs opens with a whole-tone passage both in the accompaniment and in the vocal line that enters a bar later. Berg also quotes the Bach chorale setting referred to above in his Violin Concerto. The last four notes of the 12-tone row Berg used are B, C♯, E♭ and F, an early instance of the use of the scale in jazz writing can be found in Don Redman’s “Chant of the Weed”. In 1958, Gil Evans recorded an arrangement that gives striking coloration to passages featuring whole-tone harmonies, however, these are only the most overt examples of the use of this scale in jazz. Art Tatum and Thelonious Monk are two pianists who used the tone scale extensively and creatively. Thelonious Monks Four in One and Trinkle-Tinkle are fine examples of this, a prominent example of the whole tone scale that made its way into pop music are bars 3 and 4 of the opening of Stevie Wonders 1972 song You are the Sunshine of my Life